


Forever

by thecompletebookworm



Series: Rumbelle Showdown [6]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Curse AU, F/M, Referenced past abuse, Rumbelle Showdown 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-26 16:27:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14406000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecompletebookworm/pseuds/thecompletebookworm
Summary: Prompts: Running away, If you loved me, We used to beAfter the death of Gaston and her father in prison, Belle is finally free to return to Storybrooke and to see her friend who helped her through all the turmoil.





	Forever

It was funny to be back home after all these years.  It seemed so long ago since Rum had helped back her bag in the middle of the night, since she had stolen away on a bus and hidden herself in the New York City Library.  Even good things couldn't last. She'd run through her last bunch of cash and Madame Mayer had offered quite the incentive to come back home.

Still she nearly dropped the box of books when she heard the voice, whispering like a prayer, “Belle.”

“I actually go by Izzy now” The phrase came automatically as she shoved the books away from her to hug her best friend after all these years.

Rum Gold held her tightly, squeezing as if she was about to disappear again. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

Belle felt something wet slide down her neck and she was shocked to see that he was crying.  He’d always seemed above emotions, well emotions that weren’t anger.  When she’d come to him with the black eye, she’d seen him basically grow three feet in anger. This was something entirely new.

“I would have written if I was able to, you know.” She tried to soften the blow of her absence; it had been years, but she shouldn’t have had to worry, he had always known her better than anyone.  

Rum finally pulled himself away, just enough to kiss her forehead softly. “When you ran out that night, I couldn’t be sure. And then when Gaston…”

She shook her head frantically.  "He never found me. Wasn’t able to.  Legally my name is Lacey Dior now too. Couldn’t risk anything.“

She smiled as he gave her the confused smile only received for her moments of babbling, except this one was different consuming his whole face.  "You took my name?”

Belle had known he would get the reference almost instantly. “Of course, I couldn’t very well be a French with my father trying to force me into an abusive marriage.”

He wanted to kiss that word away, kiss that bumbling oaf away, kiss the past away.  Instead he settled on, “But still you could have done anything, been a Dickinson or a Bronte or anything and you still chose me. Why?”

“I thought it was obvious.”  Belle turned away and he only was able to catch her hand at the last second.  He didn’t pull her back toward him; he didn’t want to risk bringing back old memories.

“No.  I can’t say it is.”

“We used to be best friends…” She trailed off and he didn’t know how to fill it. Did that mean they weren’t anymore? That with Gaston dead and her father in prison she didn’t need him?   So he said the only thing that he knew was true.

"And I’m here for you as long as you need me to be.”   Rum assured her.

Belle smiled shyly.  "How does forever sound?“

"Forever. Always Belle- Izzy I mean.”

She laughed.  "It’s fine.  It’s more for everyone else anyway.  I like it when you say my name.  It makes me feel safe.“

Rum looked at their intertwined fingers before moving the linked hands to his lips, giving them a slow kiss.  She wiggled at first, not pulling away but still he feared he had done something wrong, gone too far.   Instead she smirked, step closer, pulled him into her in a way he never would have dared.  Her lips were on his, and he could feel her smiling through the kiss.

Or maybe that was just a hope as he kissed his love after so long.  Rum had always felt too old for her, an awkward boy returning from law school who connected with a girl wise beyond her years, aching to hear stories about what the world was actually like out there in the real world, away from her overbearing father and the expectations that she would never get to do anything for herself, only their failing flower shop.  When she’d showed up in his shop with bruises for the first time, he’d thought it was just his protectiveness of this little girl too pure for the world.  He’d chastised himself for any hope that it was something more; he was in a position of power over her.  Especially as she had looked through his college textbooks and the other books he’d collected over his lifetime, he had been well aware of the age difference.  Rum never would have dared to call what was between them love, admiration, protectiveness, friendship sure, but never love.

But then there were thoughts of other things, how she sassed him at practically all occasions, at the way she pampered him through panic attacks, but especially when she’d broken the cup and it had tumbled to the floor of the castle.

Rumplestiltskin pulled away. He’d just thought castle. That was- he looked at his equally startled partner.  Her bright blue eyes boring into him.

"Rumplestiltskin!”  She let out a laugh, and he’d never heard something so pure in his entire life.  What happened to you? You look human! Was it-” Her hand flew to her lips realizing what they had just been doing. “I didn’t mean to.  I just thought-”

“Shhh,” he silenced her worries without a second thought.  He was too happy that she was somehow miraculously alive and trying to force down the rage that spluttered through him at Regina because this was too precious he couldn’t waste this moment, of seeing her alive and well and obviously not murdered by the clerics.  It had all been a lie.  Or at least he hoped it was.  He had memories of tending to her bruises, applying cream and bandages to her back.  Had it been a memory left by Regina to torture him even in this state?  Or something much more real?

“My curse worked. We’re in the world without magic?”

Belle’s face lit up, her hand stretched out to cradle his face, her thumb moving back and forth across the smooth skin. “So you found your son?” the excitement in her voice was palpable, but it tore at his heart even more.  Bae was out there somewhere and he was trapped here until the savior arrived.

“Not yet sweetheart,” The word slipped out but Rumplestiltskin didn’t regret it, nothing had felt more right.  "We’re not able to leave town yet. Everyone else still doesn’t know who they are.“

Her tongue darted to the edge of her teeth as she pondered that, "Like Izzy, they all think something’s terrible has happened to them.”

“So Gaston and your father didn’t hurt you when you got home?”

Belle stared at him puzzled.  "Rumple, when I left I didn’t get home. I was captured by the Evil Queen.“

As soon as she had said the name, his cane was in motion knocking the box of books off her desk seemingly before he could restrain himself. It stopped as soon as it started her gasp enough to pull him out of it.  "I’m sorry, Belle if I had known. I thought you were dead.”

“I know,” Belle led out a sob, and Rumplestiltskin had never wished he had magic more than that moment so he could whisk her away, pamper her until everything was alright again.  "She made me watch as she told you, as you fell apart.“

He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, pulling her closer. "Belle it’s okay I’m here right now.  We’re together. And you’re obviously not dead.”

She couldn’t help but smile at that.

“I think we’re going to be fine.  We’re going to get through this and I meant what I said before, I’m here as long as you want me.”

“Forever then.”

“As you wish sweetheart.  Forever.”


End file.
